''Nothing really happens on that House floor of any great significance unless Tom Murphy wants it to happen,'' said Rep. Tyrone Brooks, D-Atlanta, a leading spokesman for changing the flag. ''He could have killed it.''

But Murphy didn't kill the new flag design, which was narrowly approved in the House last week. He never spoke publicly about the flag, and he's still not talking: ''I don't have any comment on it,'' Murphy said Thursday. ''None whatever.''

As speaker, Murphy only votes to make or break ties. The bill passed 94-82.

The Senate approved the new design Tuesday, and the governor signed the law making it official Wednesday. The updated flag is already flying over the Capitol.

One expert, University of Georgia political scientist Charles Bullock, said Murphy kept quiet on the flag debate because he was caught in the cross fire of competing allegiances.

The Democratic speaker has worked closely with black lawmakers in the House, Bullock said, but he represents a nearly all-white district in rural west Georgia. Most of his constituents wanted to keep the old flag, which was dominated by the Confederate battle emblem.

Murphy also had a flag fight in his own district in September. A vandal painted over the large Confederate battle flag on the basketball gym at Haralson High School, sparking a debate over whether to repaint it. After unwanted media attention, the high school students, 90 percent of whom are white, voted overwhelmingly to repaint the flag.

That incident put the Confederate flag on the front burner during Murphy's re-election campaign in November, which he managed to win by only about 500 votes -- one of the tightest races in his 40-year career as a legislator.

Rep. Calvin Smyre, D-Columbus, who helped engineer the flag change, said the incident at the high school might have influenced Murphy to stay behind the scenes. But Smyre said the speaker did not use influence to block the new flag design.

''I can say that he was very fair and did not in any way hinder us in terms of trying to work a plan,'' Smyre said. ''He never ceases to amaze me in terms of his integrity and his fairness.''

Brooks said Murphy knew about the plan to change the flag before other legislators were told, and the speaker allowed Democratic leaders to push the bill through.

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''They wouldn't have done it without the speaker's private blessing,'' Brooks said. ''Even though the speaker was not publicly out front, I feel that behind the scenes he was allowing his leadership to join with us to work and bring this to its conclusion.''